Excerpt: Individuals and groups of all sorts have always differed from one another in many ways, throughout centuries of history and in countries around the world. Left to themselves, people tend to sort themselves out into communities of like-minded neighbors. This has been so obvious that only the intelligentsia could misconstrue it -- and only ideologues could devote themselves to crusading against people's efforts to live and associate with other people who share their values and habits.

Excerpt: Surprise is a principle of competitiveness and of survival. Athletics - trick plays; business - new products; nature - food chain; and armed conflict - strategy and tactics to defeat a superior force; first come to mind. "Secret weapons" is common vernacular and a good summary.

As we await Congress's decision on authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria, Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign-policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world. Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no "international community" ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be. You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess. We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, "smart power." (These people can't even label a foreign-policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.) They looked out at the world at the end of the Bush years, and didn't see tough decisions, unsolvable problems, unstable institutions, restless populations, technology enabling the impulse to destabilize existing institutions, evil men hungry for more power, and difficult trade-offs. No, our problems and challengers were just a matter of the previous hands running U.S. foreign policy not being smart enough.

Excerpt: “When will the world’s supply of oil be exhausted?” the MIT economist Morris Adelman has written. “The best one-word answer: never.” … U.S.-style energy independence, or something like it, may become a reality in much of Asia and West Africa, parts of Europe, most of the Americas. The results in other nations would be turbulent.

Excerpt: South Carolina Tea Party groups have drafted a resolution containing a 29-point case to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a Senator who is more conservative, Breitbart News has learned. Local Tea Party leaders provided the document, a resolution that can be passed by local and state GOP committees, to Breitbart News. It argues that Graham’s activities in the U.S. Senate are a violation of the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party platform.

Excerpt: In the latest chapter of the Obama administration’s assault on the rule of law, the attorney general is again using the Voting Rights Act as a tool to excite the Democratic Party’s base. Justified by his claim of racism, Eric Holder has brought yet another lawsuit against one of the sovereign states, this time Texas, and the state’s recently adopted requirement that those who wish to vote in Texas must – wait for it — prove they are who they say they are.

Excerpt: The 50 year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s march on Washington is causing a lot of people in my generation to reminisce. In doing so, it is hard not to be struck by two puzzling facts: (a) the fall of racial barriers to success almost everywhere and (b) the lack of economic progress in the black community as a whole, relative to whites. On the one hand, it would seem that a black in America can achieve almost anything, even being elected president of the United States. On the other hand, if we compare the economic condition of blacks and whites as a whole, you would be tempted to conclude that almost no progress has been made. … On balance, liberalism has been an obstacle to black progress, not a help.

Excerpt: Crayola has found a way to turn dried up markers into clean fuel capable of being used in boilers, ships and even cars. The company makes up to 700 million markers a year and has partnered withNew Yorkclean energy company JBI to create the Colorcycle initiative

Excerpt: In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation. (They wanted more, of course. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: On September 4, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts will hear a case in which the right of schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance has been challenged. The suit was brought by an anonymous atheist couple, backed by the American Humanist Association, because the pledge includes the phrase "under God." The suit claims that the phrase is a violation of students' rights. This is not the first time that the phrase, which was added in 1954, has been fought in court; there have been repeated attempts, with one reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004.

Excerpt: For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is "flouting the law" by not conducting a licensing review of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a federal appeals court said Tuesday. The ruling was a victory of sorts for those who want the proposed dump to open but may have little practical impact in the long-running dispute over YuccaMountain. The Obama administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hope to kill the project. (More ignoring of laws they don’t like by Regime with “the mark.” Reid doesn’t want that trash in his back yard. –Barb)

Excerpt: Michelle Obama said the U.S. is ready for its first female president, but she stopped short of endorsing Hillary Clinton for the job. "Yes, I think the country is ready for it. It’s just a question of who’s the best person out there," the first lady told Parade magazine in an interview published Thursday.

Excerpt: An audit report published this month by the inspector general for the Social Security Administration says that the Internal Revenue Service's reluctance to penalize employers who consistently file W-2s on which the Social Security Number and name do not match has "hindered" the SSA’s efforts to stop “unauthorized noncitizens” from using Social Security Numbers that are fake or belong to someone else. The audit report looked at “inaccurate wage reporting”—or the filing of W-2 forms on which the name and the Social Security Number do not match. The SSA has long said these no-match W-2s are frequently filed on behalf of illegal aliens.

Excerpt: Egyptian authorities accuse Ibrahim of masterminding the 2005 attack on the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which killed some 88 people. He is also accused of planning the August 2012 attack which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in Rafiah, and is believed to have personally executed soldiers in an attack earlier this month in which 25 soldiers were killed….Since Morsi was ousted, Muslim Brotherhood-linked Gaza terrorists have been infiltrating the Sinai to attack Egyptian army outposts.

Top Muslim Brotherhood Imam Who Vowed to be Master of the World, Arrested in Women's Clothes. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: Safwat Hegazy, top Muslim Brotherhood Imam, who last year said, “Yes, we will be masters of the world, one of these days” has been forced to postpone his dreams of ruling the world through a Caliphate, when he was arrested by Egyptian authorities while hiding in women’s clothes. He was going to be a king of the world, but he had to settle for being a queen of the desert.

Excerpt: Entranced, media critics have greeted the rollout of "AJA" as that of just another news company, not the propaganda arm of monied Qatari despots. But no matter how many American journalists "anchor"Al-JazeeraAmerica's news desks, a 24/7 Muslim Brotherhood channel is now beaming into living rooms across the country. There is no changing the fact that Al-Jazeera's leading personality is the Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Excerpt: If we got over this myth that everyone needs infinite academia, we would have less unemployment, more manufacturing, a stronger economy, less student debt, and less school tax. The economy would be stronger and we would all be happier. Ironically, in an effort not to hurt anyone’s feelings, we developed a system where everyone has to go to college, even the stupid people, until we all feel like shit. When everybody’s special, nobody is.

Excerpt: Congress hasn’t passed immigration legislation, but that hasn’t stopped President Obama from issuing directives that grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. Last week, the Obama Administration issued the latest in a line of policy directives granting amnesty by default. This latest directive instructs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials not to enforce immigration laws in cases where an illegal alien is the primary provider for any minor child—regardless of the child’s immigration status—or the parent or guardian of a child who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.

Excerpt: That is right: The British, like other Europeans, are weary of war, and more mistrusting than before of the United States of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, post-9/11 bellicosity, mass surveillance and the banking crisis. A U.S. hangover permeated the House of Commons. So did the memory of the more than 600 British dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Attempt mass expulsion: Interior Ministry plans to deport asylum-seekers from Eritrea and Sudan, but at the same time Israel is importing hundreds of foreign workers.

Excerpt: The announcement's wording can lead one to think, mistakenly, that Israel is helping these migrants on their way to a coveted destination. In this case it's Uganda, which has reached an agreement with Israel to accept the transfer of the immigrants to its custody. The agreement's terms have been kept in the dark and the fate of those who are transferred there is also unclear.

Excerpt: By 2012, 2-way trade between Vietnam and the U.S. reached $25 billion in favor of Vietnam, and 15,000 Vietnamese students were permitted into the States. Additionally, a fresh and dynamic young middle class has been emerging in [Vietnamese] society along with the flourishing Internet age. Instead of reforming the out-of-date political system to further socio-economic development, the Politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party, fearing loss of power, have mixed socialism with capitalism in what they call a “socialist-oriented market economy.

Excerpt: The choice is yours. Write your Senators and Congressman and the President and tell them you oppose illegal immigration in any form. Stand strong against it...or be prepared to live in a cesspool.

Excerpt: Apparently “English” is the only obscenity left in the new Cool Britain.Perhaps it should be referred to as the “E___” word. A chip shop boss has insisted he’s not racist after putting up a banner boasting that the business now had ‘English owners.’

President of the Islamic Forum of Canada Explains How Gays Benefit from Being Stoned to Death. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: The vice chairman of UAF is the well-known British politician Ken Livingstone. He is now a keen supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood's Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. 'Red Ken', as he was called by the British public in the 1980s, used to focus on various and many 'identity groups', such as lesbians and gays, until he realized that many of his new-found Muslim friends wanted to kill some of these people. [I liked Red Ken in the 80s because he made the London buses really cheap. He keeps newts for pets.Kate]

The massive forest fire that has scorched 333 square miles in and aroundYosemiteNational Parkmay have been sparked by illegal marijuana growers, according to one fire official inTuolumneCounty.The San Jose Mercury News reports that Todd McNeal, chief of the Twain Harte Fire Department, told a community meeting that it was "highly suspect that there might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing." McNeal, who has 23 years of experience with Forest Service, the National Park Service and other agencies, said at the Aug. 23 meeting that investigators know the fire is human caused since there was know (sic, s.b. “no”) lightening in the area.

Britain's UKIP party isn't a gang of grumpy old Tories. By Michael Heaver

Excerpt: Those who have never voted before or haven't voted for a number of years are increasingly throwing their lot in with the Kippers, creating a potent swelling of natural Ukip voters. The party no longer consists only of defectors looking to dig the "big parties" in the ribs. That gives it a political resilience that will survive assassination attempts in the comment pages of several newspapers.

Wapo editorial: Maybe we should just let teachers rape students. By Jazz Shaw

Excerpt: Earlier this week we talked about the shocking case out in Montana where a 49 year old school teacher, Stacey Rambold, received a thirty day jail sentence for raping a 14 year old student who later killed herself. Just yesterday I was commenting to a friend on how I was surprised that the story hasn’t been receiving even more national attention than it has. Apparently I spoke too soon, because at least one editorial columnist at the Washington Post – Betsy Karasik – certainly had something to say on the subject.

If you still believe in "climate change," read this. By James Delingpole

Excerpt: By way of further confirmation, you might care to read this superb recent essay from Dr Richard Lindzen, which you can reach via Watts Up With That?. He argues that mainstream climate science is currently akin to Lysenkoism and that its adherents have more in common with religious zealots than scrupulous seekers-after-truth. [Dr Lindzen:] “Global climate alarmism has been costly to society, and it has the potential to be vastly more costly...."

New Shooters are Young, Women and Living in Urban Areas. By Katie Pavlich

Excerpt: Shooting sports have become even more popular in recent years and according to a new study by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, new participants are younger, women and living in urban areas. The demographics of new shooters show they are . . . Younger: 66 percent of new shooters fall into the 18-to-34-year-old category compared to 31 percent in the same age category for established shooters. (The cross-reference here is that the real growth in the gun business is handguns. NSSF has been on a long-term campaign to recruit women and youth shooters, and this seems to be paying off. It’s also reasonable to surmise that the growth in sales of handguns to women is related to the message that “when seconds count, the police are minutes away”. There are enough word-of-mouth stories, combined with news accounts of unarmed women being victimized, that many woman are saying, “That’s not going to be me.” I think it would be a great research project to get breakdowns by gender for all the concealed carry permits that are issued. Wish I had time…Steve)

Excerpt: There may be no official rule book for being a liberal, but that doesn't mean there aren't rules. There are actually quite a few rules liberals go by and the more politically active liberals become, the more rigidly they tend to stick to their own code of behavior. These rules, most of which are unspoken, are passed along culturally on the Left and viciously enforced.

Evict the Rich, White Liberals. By Kevin Williamson [In response to Allison Benedikt's, "If you send your kid to private school, you are a bad person]

Excerpt: That the main trend in socioeconomic migration over the last few centuries or so seems to have escaped her here is not my particular concern, but it should be pointed out that the enemies of private education generally fail to consider the extent to which that rich-guy clustering provides advantages beyond high-quality schools. The development of social and professional networks, prestige, learning high-status habits and manners, etc., all are enormously important perks associated with living among the well-to-do. (I believe it was WFB who observed that a sufficiently motivated student could get a Yale-quality education practically anywhere, but that’s not what Yale is for.)

Excerpt: Bowing to overwhelming public opinion, President Obama has decided to bring the case for a new war before Congress. He made the announcement amidst a news dump, but it could well be an historic moment whose memory outlasts Obamacare. Here are a few reasons why, listed in no particular order.

MO. Man Tries To Stick Up Clerk Who Also Happens To Be A Four-Deployment Iraq War Vet — Guess Who It Doesn’t End Well For

Excerpt: Workers with employer-sponsored coverage don’t qualify for subsidized coverage on Obamacare’s insurance exchanges. Those subsidies are designed for low-income people who aren’t offered coverage from their employers, and have to shop for insurance on their own. But the labor union leaders want those subsidies to also apply to their members with employer-sponsored coverage, even though they already get those benefits tax-free due to the employer tax exclusion for health insurance.

Excerpt: Imagine you are a parent who receives a visit from the state police, informing you that a trusted teacher at the local school molested your child — and took pictures of it. After a painful investigation and trial, the teacher finally gets convicted, and you figure the community will rally around you to demand a stiff sentence for the man who violated the public trust. However, when you arrive at the courtroom, you see several other teachers sitting in support of the teacher, and arguing for the lightest possible sentence.

Syria

Okay, we bomb Syria, Assad falls and al Qaeda seizes the WMDs. Obama’s plan B is? And if they step up their ethnic cleansing of Christians and Alawites? ~Bob

Excerpt: Nearly six in 10 oppose missile strikes in light of the U.S. government’s determination that Syria used chemical weapons against its own people. Democrats and Republicans alike oppose strikes by double digit margins, and there is deep opposition among every political and demographic group in the survey. Political independents are among the most clearly opposed, with 66 percent saying they are against military action.

Excerpt: The above [headlines] were all plucked from the United States Navy newsletter. When the first one showed up in my in-box, I thought it might contain under-reported tales of derring-do off the Horn of Africa battling Somali pirates. But instead it's one diversity-awareness story after another: "Senior Navy Leader Receives Most Diverse Engineer of the Year Award"; "Appointment Of First Somali Pirate to Joint Chiefs Of Staff Shows Diversity Is Rising, Says Top Pentagon Official".

An Accidental War: Perfuntory and ineffetual warmaking in Syria is worse than nothing. By Mark Steyn

Excerpt: But the object of war, in Liddell Hart’s famous distillation, is not to destroy the enemy’s tanks (or Russian helicopters) but his will. And on that front America loses, always. The “unmatched” superpower cannot impose its will on Kabul kleptocrats, Pashtun goatherds, Egyptian generals, or Benghazi militia.

Christians may be bombed, for that is convention. Muslims may not be gassed, for that is taboo. By Archbishop Cranmer

Excerpt: Yes, even before the heinous use of chemical weapons captivated the world's attention, Syria's Christians were 'being chased out in large numbers'. But Her Majesty's Government was not overly concerned about that. And by 'chased out', the Archbishop meant systematically slaughtered - one by one; cleansed utterly from the region by warring factions of Islamists.

Excerpt: The BBC (and the rest of course) has been giving this story a far greater significance than it merits….and has led them to draw all sorts of conclusions that seem all too conveniently in line with their own politics….claiming this is highly damaging for Cameron whilst Miliband has risen Phoenix like from the ashes of his more usual political roastings.

A senior administration officials told Fox News that the president, Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made phone calls on Sunday to senators and House members urging them to vote in favor of the authorization of military force in Syria. The official called the lobbying effort a "flood the zone" strategy, in an apparent acknowledgement of just how hard winning Capitol Hill approval will be.

Excerpt: The Asad government continues to insist that it did not use chemical weapons in the attack on 21 August. It approved an extension of the UN inspection team's visit and requested that it investigate three gas attacks against Syrian soldiers since 21 August. Lebanon's Daily Star reported on 26 August that at least four Hizballah fighters are receiving treatment in Beirut after coming into contact with chemical agents in Syria, a security source said.

Excerpt: Back in the anti-war 60's Muhammad Ali, in declaring he would not accept the military draft, said of the Vietnam War "them Cong ain't done nothing to me!", meaning he had no dog to hunt in that war. I feel the same way about Syria.

Excerpt: Images obtained exclusively by Infowars show the aftermath of an alleged massacre of a Christian village in Syria during which men, women and children were slaughtered and churches desecrated by Obama-backed FSA rebels. (Two things I believe are true about Syria. 1. There are no good guys there. 2. You cannot believe anything any of them tell us. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: But [Obama] has done no preparation. What they should have done — I mean, this is sort of amateur hour. When there were the first attacks six months ago or if you like, when we had the current attacks, he should have immediately have called in the Congress the way the prime minister of Britain had called in the parliament, had a debate and got a resolution and then went out and told the world we are going do x or we are not going to do x.

Barack Obama an embarrassing amateur on the world stage. By Nile Gardiner

Excerpt: The absence of Britain in any American-led military action significantly weakens Obama’s position on the world stage, and dramatically undercuts the Obama administration. The vote reflected not only a lack of confidence in the Commons in the prime minister’s Syria strategy, it also demonstrated a striking lack of confidence in Barack Obama and US leadership. In marked contrast to Obama, President Bush invested a great deal of time and effort in cultivating ties with key US allies, especially Britain.

Excerpt: U.S. President Barack H. Obama informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in advance that he would let Congress decide on the appropriate action the U.S. would take in Syria. Reports in Israeli media quoted senior Israeli officials as saying the Obama called Netanyahu on Saturday, some four hours before he appeared on national TV in the US to announce that he was holding back on taking action against Syria until Congress discussed what the appropriate actions should be. (Oh gee, I heard he told everybody the attack would be Sat between 3-4 PM….party pooper. I think stretching it out for Armageddon on 09/11. I mean, Iran making more uranium at a frantic pace and N Korean expanding its launch pads….with no one really noticing or giving a damn. More attention paid to Miley and a new dog. –Barb)

PA Daily: US behind Syria Massacres: PA journalists whose salaries are paid from US aid, blame the US for encouraging Syrian carnage

Excerpt: The Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed the United States Sunday for the killing in Syria, reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). The PA's official daily wrote that “Events of mass killings do not upset [America] because they themselves have used killing as a means and a strategy to attain global domination."

Excerpt: Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said condemnation of Syria over the poison gas attack, which U.S. officials say killed 1,429 people, was not enough. He said opposing international action on the grounds that it was "foreign intervention" was no longer acceptable. "Any opposition to any international action would only encourage Damascus to move forward with committing its crimes and using all weapons of mass destruction," said Faisal, according to Reuters. (The Saudis want the US to attack Syria…So, who runs the US? Canisters of chemical weapons I saw on internet (prior post) were labeled as Saudi….supposedly given to rebels who “mishandled.” Let them attack their brother Muslims. The proof, you see, is this phone call….like that video a year ago…just this bit…we can edit it umpteen times with talking points until it is assbackward…..blink, blink, blink, blink. Sign of sincerity, you know. Guess what’s almost here? 09/11. –Barb)

A website that ran a story alleging that the chemical weapons responsible for 1,429 deaths came from the Saudis to rebels who mishandled them has anti-U.S. and anti-Saudi links, as well as ties to the Occupy movement. MintPress was started last year in Minneapolis by Mnar Muhawesh, a St. CloudState college graduate with Palestinian immigrant parents who hired a start-up slate of experienced correspondents with funds from mysterious unnamed investors. (Who knows which is what? Agree with Palin. Let them deal with it and let their Allah sort them out. –Barb)

Members of US military didn’t join to fight for Al Qaedahttp://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=201108#more-201108Excerpt: Member of the U.S. military didn’t join so they fight caught alongside Al Qaeda in Syria’s civil war. Anonymous military members sent The Angel Clark Show pictures of them (with sunglasses) holding pieces of paper expressing their displeasure with fighting along with Al Qaeda in Syria’s Civil War. Military member are prohibited from making political statements, which is why these two want to remain anonymous.(When I joined the Marine Corps in 1966, I knew that I would soon be in Vietnam and that I would likely be in combat. I also knew who and what I would be fighting against and for. Communism/Marxism/Socialism same-same - was the enemy then and it's still the main enemy today. We have several other enemies today. One is radical Islam. Unfortunately we have a Marxist president that supports our enemies. --MM)

Excerpt: If our attitude is that Obama screwed up, but that now the least-screwed-up remedy is to attack Syria, then we are indeed in bad shape.

Verify chemical weapons use before unleashing the dogs of warhttp://dailycaller.com/2013/08/29/verify-chemical-weapons-use-before-unleashing-the-dogs-of-war/Excerpt: According to the transcript of the original Unit 8200 report, the major “hotly denied firing any of his missiles” and invited the general staff to come and verify that all his weapons were present. The report contains a note at the end that the major was interrogated by Syrian intelligence for three days, then returned to command of his unit. “All of his weapons were accounted for,” the report stated.

Excerpt: Obama’s belated agreement to take the Syrian strikes before Congress, while asserting that he will not be bound by whatever Congress decides, buys him a convenient exit strategy. The Congress trap will let Obama opt out of an attack that he is ambivalent about while blaming Republicans for destroying American credibility.

Excerpt: In Syria, the religious dynamic is particularly acute as Assad–a secular Alawite, part of the Shiite branch of Islam–is under attack mostly from religious Sunni groups with varied interests and outside support. It is unknown which groups, if any, may be affiliated politically with elements in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states. If the U.S. administration knows more about the rebels, it isn’t sharing much with the public. (In fact, Assad is an Alawite, which is a sect of Twelver Shia, not a secular Sunni. And he is receiving support -- not being attacked by -- his longtime Shia allies Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It isn't clear if Ms. Frumin also is trying to lump the Saudis in with this Shia alliance supposedly attacking Assad, but the Saudis are most decidedly Sunni. And they are heavily funding and arming the Sunni Islamists trying to bring down the Assad regime. --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Excerpt: Obama and Kerry may have gained France, whose loss under Bush occasioned much agonizing from the Democrats, but they lost the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland the Ukraine and the Czech Republic; all members of Bush’s Coalition of the Willing in Iraq.

Excerpt: A recruiting website for the Marines was tampered with and redirected to show a pro-Assad message Monday, but a spokesman says no information was put at risk. Capt. Eric Flanagan tells Fox News the website was not hacked, but temporarily redirected. He said he could not confirm who was responsible, but the site was redirected to a message from the Syrian Electronic Army.

Excerpt: On Laura Ingraham’s radio show on Monday, West said this was a symptom of Obama not wanting to deal with those consequences and looking for someone to share the blame, should action in Syria go wrong. He pointed to Obama’s actions against Libya which he didn’t seek congressional approval to back up that claim. “I think what you just saw play out was a president who has a history of voting ‘present,’ and all of a sudden he got out ahead of himself, and he realized that, ‘If I take an action on my own, I’m going to own this,’” West said.

Excerpt: Sen. John McCain said Monday that he and Sen. Lindsey Graham had "a candid exchange" with President Barack Obama on Syria, and warned that "the consequences would be catastrophic" if Congress voted against a military strike against President Bashar al-Assad for his use of chemical weapons. "The consequences would be catastrophic because it would undermine the credibility of the United States of America and the credibility of the President of the United States. None of us want that."… "A degrading strike limited in scope could have a beneficial effect to the battlefield momentum," Graham added.

excerpt: According to USAID (United States Agency For International Development), the federal agency in charge of distributing the vast majority of foreign aid monies to other countries, United States taxpayers have paid for over one billion dollars in foreign aid packages to help support the “Syrian Humanitarian Response." Despite the threat of continued chemical attacks against the Syrian people that has served as the focal point of rallying cries for advocates of US military intervention (including the Obama administration), The Daily Beast reported that gas masks were not among the items purchased with the American billion-dollar aid package.

Excerpt: Kate Hoey, for example, widely respected for standing up to her party over everything from the Gulf War to hunting, was among a number who trotted out the "fact" that Carla del Ponte, a member of the UN commission on Syria, had "pointed out" that the rebels had used poison gas. This is the danger of MPs deciding their positions on a shallow reading of newspaper columnists with whom they agree, Twitter and other social media – all of which have been reposting this line obsessively for the last ten days in support of the tenuous idea that the East Ghouta attack was the work of the opposition.

Excerpt: The suggestion that British military officers are being excluded from the Pentagon's planning for an attack on Syria is arguably the most serious consequence of last week's disastrous parliamentary vote on the Syrian crisis.

While our politicians continue to haggle over who was responsible for the Government's humiliating defeat, the real impact of the vote is now being felt by the British military and intelligence agencies, which arguably have the closest working relationship with the U.S. of any Whitehall body. What those who voted against the Government during last week's debate have failed to realise is that maintaining a good relationship with the U.S. is vital to our own national security.

Excerpt: It is absolutely critical that Parliament be allowed a chance to make this right. Especially now that the hopelessly dithering US president has shown how readily his nerve can be made to fail. Please Mr Cameron, be the statesman that you are capable of being. Give Parliament another vote and another chance to restore the West's belief in Britain's rectitude.

Tweet from Joseph ‏@Johoff23

If I were an Aspirin factory janitor in Syria I'd take some sick time.